Lord of the Rings
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: Oh Saturn, oh most beauteous of planets. Even here, mankind had spread. Even on Titan, the RDA had extractive operations.


**Lord of the Rings**

Up until only a few decades ago, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn had steadily increased in number.

Not literally increased, as in, the number of moons both of the gas giants had remained more or less constant over the course of human history. Technically there was a chance that both had acquired more over the billions of years that had followed their formation, as gravity snatched passing comets, but new material hadn't formed. And thus, so far from these worlds, as humanity had developed ever-better tools to search the stars, the number of moons detected at both worlds had increased over time. To the point that by the time humans had landed on the likes of Io and Titan, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn had numbered over a hundred each…before both had steadily declined.

Drumming her fingers on her desk, Cal cast a glance outside her office – a fancy term for a not so fancy room, propped up on the third floor that had been propped up beside one of Titan's great methane lakes. Rain pelted away at the windows, daring her to believe it was actual water and not more methane. Lighting flashed in the distance, reminding her of a storm on Earth. Men and women walked outside without the need for pressurized suits, only rebreathers and thermal gear, reminding her of an industrial site she'd once worked at in north-western Canada, reduced to a toxic wasteland by decades of over-exploitation. And towering above it all, the refinery. One of dozens that the RDA had set up on Titan as plants sucked in liquid methane, refined it into fuel, and sent it into orbit for transport to the Sol system's inner worlds. Mostly Mars and Luna, but also, to her unease, Earth as well.

Methane burnt. Earth was burning. The more methane that was burnt, the faster humanity's homeworld burnt in turn. But even factoring in the transport costs, methane was cheap. Even cheaper than the moon mining the RDA had going on in the two largest planets in the Sol system. Though, granted, "mining" might be a bit of an understatement for what was going on.

_Where the heck are you Morales? _She looked at her watch, its digital display set at 15:49 Standard Sol Time. Morales was late. So, as the door to her office opened, as Nathan Morales walked inside, she didn't bother smiling. She instead just sat there in her chair, waiting for him to break the silence and wipe that stupid grin off his face.

"Sorry I'm late," he murmured.

Cal gestured to the chair in front of the desk. A small red plastic one, nothing like her own which was partially composed of real wood. It had cost a small fortune to make on Earth, and another small fortune to ship over a billion killometres here. Still, she'd taken the job in this hellhole, and the RDA was nothing if not generous to its administrators.

Morales sat down, looking a bit perturbed at the seating arrangement, but otherwise keeping his mouth shut.

"Had a good trip?" Cal asked.

"One month to get to Mars, plus two and a half months to get to Saturn, spending all of that time in zero-g, and most of that time in a room smaller than this one?"

"So…a good trip then."

Morales grunted. "Sooner cryo technology comes online the better."

Cal didn't dispute the notion, even though cryo was in the same realm of FTL communication right now – theoretically possible, but technically infeasible.

"Anyway," Morales said. "I'd like nothing more than to get to my hab module, but before that, I need to run a few things by you. And among them is-"

"No."

Morales blinked.

"No," Cal repeated.

"What do you mean, _no_?"

"I mean I know that officially you're in the Saturnian system to check on RDA facilities and staff. I also know that unofficially you're secretly evaluating us to try and find an administrator to run the Centauri Program."

Morales frowned. He was trying to hide his shock, and his frustration, and to his credit, he was mostly succeeding.

"How do you know about that?" he murmured.

Least he had been until he'd dropped the gauntlet. "Birds cheep, even out here," Cal said. "The RDA can deny it all it wants, but Pandora is the final frontier. All it has to do is find a way to get a ship there, plus personnel, and get them all back. And that's a trip that even at half the speed of light would take eight years." She leant back in her chair. "So, no. I'm fine with Titan. So whatever you say about me and the operation here, I'm not going to be catapulted through the darkness of space from one Hell to another."

Morales leant back in his chair as well, though Cal saw his fingers tap on his leg. Obviously he was frustrated, but whether it was with her, or that the RDA wasn't as good at keeping secrets as he thought, she couldn't tell. Regardless, she got to her feet and walked over to a bottle of water plus glasses.

"Can I get you something?" she asked. "It's all recycled here, but honestly, the water on Earth isn't much better."

"From what I understand you haven't been on Earth in a year."

"And until I complete my contract here, I won't be, if at all." She poured the first glass. "Twelve months on Titan. Then, if I choose to go back, another month waiting for a launch window, plus four months to get back." She poured the second glass and walked back, holding both in her hands. "Believe it or not, even with fusion-powered engines, the tyranny of distance is still a thing."

Morales said nothing as he took the glass. She expected him to start yammering on about Pandora's mineral deposits, and the promise of matter/anti-matter reactions and whatnot, but mercifully, he remained silent. Least until she took the seat and sipped her own glass.

_God, I can still taste some of the piss._

"Alright," Morales murmured. "Understand that the RDA isn't going to force you in a proposed expedition to Alpha Centauri which may or may not exist yet."

Cal smirked and took another sip.

"But if there _was _one, and if I _was _making a secret report on the staff of Titan and Saturn's other moons…I'd need a reason why."

"On the record, or off it?"

"Miss Fujiya, this entire meeting is off the record."

Cal took another sip and nodded at the window. "Look outside Morales. There's your answer."

He got to his feet and walked over. "Titan?"

"Beyond that."

"…the clouds?"

Cal sighed. "Beyond _that_."

Morales said nothing. Cal got to her feet and walked over. "You can't see it today," she whispered. "But if the clouds were slightly thinner, you'd see Saturn in all her glory." She looked at Morales. "Do you know how many moons there were of Saturn, nine years ago?"

Morales gave an awkward shrug.

"One-hundred and two," Cal said. "And do you know how many of them are now?"

"…less?"

"Eighty-two," Cal said. "Eighty-two moons. That's a loss of twenty moons in nine years. And do you know why that is, Mister Morales?"

"Ma'am, I know why, I just don't see the point of this."

"Really? You think moon harvesting doesn't keep the gears on Earth turning? You think that Jupiter and Saturn aren't a treasure trove of everything from iron ores to rare earth elements? After Luna and Mars, you think we'd stop here?"

Morales gave her a look. The type of look he no doubt gave protesters on Earth at the gold mining operations he supervised in the Amazon Savannah.

"Asteroid mining's a thing," Cal said. "But they're spread out over millions of miles. Moons however, they're closer. And while every snot-nosed brat on Earth knows the names of Titan, Tethys, and even Enceladus, no-one's going to think of Skathi. Or Erriapo. Or Tarvos." She took another sip of water, draining the glass. "Deimos and Phobos are protected by the Sol Heritage Treaty you know. Even if they're used as docking and refuelling stations, they get to remain around Mars in perpetuity. Saturn though…"

"And that's it?" Morales asked. "You're pissed about a few moons?"

"I'm pissed that I'm on Titan. I'm pissed that I'm pissed, but not so pissed that I'm doing anything else than keeping the methane shipments flowing. And yes, I'm pissed every time I look up at Saturn, and think of what's going on in the skies above here." She got back in her seat and leant back. "Yes, I'm a hypocrite. But if you want to send me to another moon, and start tearing that apart, then forget it. At least here, Titan remains intact. Least when the human race bites it, there won't be nearly as many scars here as…other worlds."

Morales, after a moment, murmured, "you know that Pandora is more hospitable than any world we've found, correct? Nearly Earth gravity. Functioning magnetosphere. You'd need a rebreather on the surface, but other than that, temperature, humidity, are all like Earth. Or at least the tropics."

"And all the more reason I don't want to screw it over. Because if there's one thing that we can remove faster than moons, it's trees." She leant forward. "You ever been to the tropics, Morales? I mean, plantations are nice and all, but verdant rainforest is kind of at a premium these days."

"If you're referring to the Amazon, you-"

"I'm not," she said, replying truthfully. "But the answer's still no. I'm on Titan. Chances are I might have to stay on Titan, because I haven't been keeping up with my exercise regimen, and going back to one g might kill me. And as nice as Mars is, well…" She trailed off, not able to say any more. And to her relief, Morales didn't say anything either. He just finished off his water, put it on the desk, and headed for the door. Only pausing to murmur, "I'll see you at the meeting tomorrow. On the record of course."

Cal remained silent. She just sat in her seat, looking out the window. At the clouds. At the sky.

At the faintest glimpse of Saturn beyond them.

* * *

_A/N_

_So this was kind of cobbled together from a number of ideas I've had. What mainly prompted it was the discovery of some new moons around Saturn, putting it slightly ahead of Jupiter in moon count. Truth be told, I originally envisaged a crackfic where Saturn and Jupiter had a rivalry. That said, I went with a more pessimistic take, because that's my view on the world these days. Partly the idea of whether those moons would be protected if we had the ability to mine them in the same way we might asteroids and comets, because yes, some of their moons are really small. It occurred to me that if I were to ask you the names of Mars's moons, everyone would know them (well, I'd hope so), but if I say "name me the moons of Jupiter and Saturn," chances are, if you're like me, you'd only be able to name a few, and get mixed up. Also, finally, an article I read way, way back that urged restraint on the notion of Sol system mining, because if we over-exploit Sol, the human race has nowhere else to go for resources. Now, that's a very long conversation, but regardless, drabbled this up._

_And yes, I know this a setting primarily known for blue space elves, but meh._


End file.
